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Black Diamond Kits

Sage's Kits, Nine Weeks Old

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Charlotte's Gridley Show Report

For a week or two I have been preparing my rabbits for the Gridley show, both open and youth. Though I was going to participate in showmanship, because of Puck's (the Siamese sable doe I sold at that show) personality I felt I did not need to practice much with her. She is one of the most docile bunnies. As usual, I was rather nervous, but maintained a confident appearance.

Charlotte and Puck in the intermediate showmanship competition

Puck was perfect throughout all of showmanship, and her did her part to earn us first place in intermediate showmanship.

The only fault the judge found with my presentation was that I used the word "nice" when judging my rabbit. If I had used "excellent," "good," or "fair," or any other synonym for "nice," I could have gotten a perfect score. At least it wasn't anything huge, and being from out of state, I hadn't had that score sheet before to study from.

Before showmanship, I had participated in three of the shows, two of which were open class. My chocolate steel, Sage, took second and third out of the five junior does in the two open shows. Sadly, our junior does weren't even three months old. Their competitors were two months older, and they had much longer wool and better flesh condition. Sage was praised for having a good head and ears against the others. In her third open show, she got second again out of her group. We were very happy that we entered three does in the open, instead of the two that we had planned, because one of the does wasn't a doe at all. So at least somebody was still able to get three legs.

Youth show A contest

Sage competed much better in the youth shows, and she ended up with two legs. Phantom (a self-black doe) got second and third place among junior does. Her wool was shorter than Sage's. Sweetie (a steel doe) got fourth and fifth places. She had barely one inch of wool in some places, but enough wool was two inches long to be able to compete in the show. Puck was DQ'd for an "abscess," which was actually the little bump remaining from her vaccination for snuffles. Out of the eight juniors we brought to show, she was only one judges noticed the bump on. It should be gone within a couple of weeks. (Fudge, Lydia's doe, placed second and third.)

Jean-Luc, who is going to his new home at the Turlock show, hopped away with a leg for best opposite of breed in a field of five bucks in show B. Muddy Buddy also hopped away with a leg for best opposite in show A.

1 comment:

Glad you had fun. Bummer on the DQ. All of mine had that same lump. I drained it and it healed over in a few days. I worked as a vet tech for 12 years and we often saw little local reactions like that.

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1970's Soviet Propaganda Poster, Rabbit Style

This photo graced the top of the blog for several months. Why do I call it a Soviet propaganda poster? Because it looks just like one. (I got my degree in Russian in 1987. I got to see a whole lot of Soviet propaganda posters in the course of my studies.) Anyway, it's classic Soviet propaganda. There is almost always a lighter individual, centered and higher than the darker individuals who are flanking and lower. The lighter individual looks up and to the side, into the light. The sun's rays smile down, indicating a bright future. We could never have gotten this pose in a million years if we'd been trying.